The iPhone's presentation is easily one of the greatest technology launches of all time. If you want to see Steve Jobs at his very best, that event from 2007 is it.

The iPad event, by contrast, was well-received, but it was no iPhone. And five years later, that's kind of the same story as the device itself. The iPad has been a huge success, far exceeding the expectations of both Apple and the market as a whole, but it's no iPhone.

That isn't to discount the iPad or to diminish the impact it might have in the long run (as tablets and notebooks get closer and closer together), but as I said back in October, the smartphone is the new center of the computing universe.

Apple reported its earnings on Tuesday — record earnings at that — and although iPad sales were up significantly quarter-over-quarter, they were still down 18% from their peak last year.

Still, the iPad matters. It matters a lot. Every tablet on the market today is, in some way, a reflection and a response to the original iPad. (The one possible exception is Microsoft's Surface Pro 3, but that is mostly because Microsoft realized it made more sense to sell the Surface as a MacBook Air competitor rather than an iPad competitor). In many respects, the tablet market is still the iPad market.

A look back at some of the biggest iPad predictions and criticisms is both entertaining and informative, especially when you consider how things turned out.

Criticism: No one needs it

At the very beginning, Apple worked hard to establish the "need" for an iPad. The iPad launch presentation was quick to show off various scenarios where the device would be useful, including in education. Apple knew it had to answer the "why do I want this" part of the buying question.

In fact, it's remarkable to look back and consider the lengths that Apple went through to sell the product and its desirability to the public. Remember the episode of Modern Family that was dedicated to Phil's attempts to buy an iPad? It was a remarkable episode of television in that it was both funny, and perhaps the most integrated product placement we've seen in modern primetime.

Apple spent the marketing muscle to promote the iPad early on because even at its $499 price point, plenty of critics were quick to say no one would want one. Five years and nearly 250 million units sold later, it's clear those predictions were wrong.

The ultimate long tail on tablets is still unclear — and in truth, the market does look different than it did two or three years ago — but as I argued in July, that's the fault of the press and the analysts as much as anyone else. We saw the tremendous early growth curve of the iPad and expected it to continue forever, much as smartphones have.

But the iPad isn't a smartphone — even if we use it in similar ways — and its life cycle is much more akin to a desktop or laptop computer.

Today, hundreds of millions love their iPad tablets. But anyone who expected it to mirror the iPhone's seemingly never-ending sales trajectory is probably disappointed.

On Tuesday, Tim Cook addressed falling iPad sales and again expressed why he is bullish on the category as a long play. Why have sales fallen? Cook agrees with analysts who think that the longer upgrade cycle of the iPad — something between that of an iPhone and a Mac — has slowed sales faster than some expected.

Cook did point out that most iPad sales — even in developed markets such as the United States and Europe — are to first-time owners. To Cook, that means the market for tablets isn't saturated and that it has time to grow.

The open question, however, is whether that market will ever become as big as the PC market.

Criticism: No Flash support will kill the iPad

One of the biggest points of criticism against the original iPad — even before its release — was that it would not support Adobe Flash. As a result, games, web apps and yes, web video, would need to be updated and re-encoded to run on Apple's tablet.

Critics and Flash advocates were aghast, with many questioning how Apple could possibly ship a content-consumption tablet with no Flash support. How would users watch videos? What about games? What about ads? (Hey, the rest of us didn't care, but marketing and sales teams sure did!)

While we waited for the iPad's release, I went through lists of video services, looking to see which ones already supported HTML5 video and which services still needed an update. YouTube was ready (and a dedicated iPad app), so the big service was covered — but what about everything else?

Steve Jobs responded to the lack of Flash on the iPad (and iOS in general) at the end of April 2010 with his famous "Thoughts on Flash" memo. He proclaimed that Flash was no longer necessary.

A veritable online war exploded over his comments, but within 18 months, Jobs' prediction became a reality when even Adobe decided to halt development of its own Flash player for mobile platforms.

Today, it's hard to find any video site that doesn't support HTML5 in the browser (or that doesn't have an iOS or Android app). Ads have moved to HTML5, too, and the industry has shifted its workflow accordingly.

In fact, as I write this, YouTube has announced that its video player will now default to HTML5, not Flash. That's huge.

The iPad itself didn't kill Flash — HTML5 was taking off and was clearly the future — but it did help force the industry to adopt HTML5 more quickly, especially in video.

Criticism: It's just a big iPod touch

The iPad was widely panned after its initial announcement, with some analysts and critics writing it off as nothing more than "a big iPod touch." The implication: Why would anyone buy an oversized iPod touch?

Putting aside the fact that the iPad is a lot more than just a bigger mobile music player or smartphone, the fact remains that, five years on, the public is actually totally OK with buying a tablet that, at some level, is just a bigger version of their iPhone.

Remember, in 2010, the biggest smartphone screen on the market was 4 inches, with most phones in the 3.5-inch range. Going to a nearly 10-inch iPad was, for many, a revelation and totally worth the money.

If anything, the growth of the phablet as a market and the increase in demand for large-screen phones proves that the criticism of the iPad was misplaced.

Is the iPad just a giant iPhone? Well, kind of. But the truth is, plenty of people want giant phones.

Prediction: It will save the publishing industry

This isn't just about critical schadenfreude. Plenty of the positive predictions about the iPad turned out to be false, too.

Five years ago, the iPad was seen as a device that would change the shape of publishing forever. It would save the magazine industry. New, tablet-only publications would take off. iBooks would be a tremendous success.

Except: not really. The early flood of iPad-ready magazines hit the App Store and some have found success. Today, I doubt any magazine publisher would be willing to leave the App Store (Apple's Newsstand is another issue), but by the same token, few publishers would cite the iPad as having a material impact on their subscriptions. At the end of 2013, ad sales pages for iPad magazines were up, but the vast majority of ad revenue was and still remains tied to the print products.

As for the iPad-only publication The Daily? News Corp. shuttered it after just 15 months in operation.

It isn't so much that tablet publishing has failed, it's more that publishing in general has continued to move to the web. The issues of monetization, debates over paywalls and the role of new ad types — including native advertising — haven't disappeared because of the iPad. The iPad is a great device for reading media. The fact remains, however, that more people are turning to web browsers, and apps such as Flipboard and Facebook, rather than magazines packaged into apps.

As for book publishing, Amazon still has a colossal lead in the ebook space and Apple's attempts to placate publishers with better pricing deals just ended up with a big government fine.

Five more years

As we prepare to enter the second half of "the iPad decade," it’s clear that the iPad — and tablets in general — still have a lot to prove. The category is a success, yes. It's also much bigger than many predicted it would be five years ago.

Going forward, an open question remains: Will tablets continue to exist the way they do now — as bigger phones, consumption devices and utilities for specific business tasks — or will the category shift into the broader PC market?

Microsoft has shown that the latter model can be successful. Still, watch any small child with an iPad — watch how intuitively the device is used — and it's clear we have yet to tap the full potential of these devices.

Steve Jobs laid out his vision for the iPad five years ago, one that has largely succeeded in becoming reality. I can't wait to see what types of tablets we're using five years from now.

Mashable
is a global, multi-platform media and entertainment company. Powered by its own proprietary technology, Mashable is the go-to source for tech, digital culture and entertainment content for its dedicated and influential audience around the globe.